From now on

Last weekend, I took a break from the camp and went for a quick trip to New-York with Dalexia and her children. For Dalexia and her son, it was their first trip out of the country but for her daughter it was her second visit to the big city since she has went last year on a school trip. For me it was also my second time there. Two years ago I have spent 2 days in the Big Apple when I have done my summer trip to the East Coast. Trip that has been fully related in what I have called back then Chronicles of a Lonely Traveller. You must remember, it was at the time when I was a real active blogger.

The trip went well, although we were short in time since it was a 7 hours drive to get there and since we were staying in the city's surroundings to avoid paying the expensive price of the downtown hotels. When I look back, I'm not sure anymore that it was such a good plan. When you calculate the price of the gas, the highway tolls(4.50 US), the paying bridges(8$ US), The parking lots(one of them asked me 70$ US for the day!! :crazy: ) and all the time lost turning around to get where we wanted to, but New York is an expensive city and when you go there you have to pay, it's reality.

For me the most enjoyable moment was to finally see Dalexia's son impress by something. The 13 old kids always react no matter what activity we do by saying something like “it's stupid!” or “it's lame!”. But for the first time, when we were in Time Square, I ask him “And now is it still lame?” and he answered “No!!!”. Yes, we have won!

Besides Time Square, we went shopping to the Chinatown, we took the boat to the State Island, we hate at the Hard Rock Café where Dalexia's daughter saw the signed bass guitar of Duff from the Gun's and Roses and we also went up the Empire State building. Unfortunately, an electric storm happened at the same time we were stepping out on the outside observatory and the security ordered us to go back inside.

The next day we went to Central Park and made the 7 hours drive back home plus a 1 ½ hour waiting at the USA/Canada border. When we arrived home, we were all exhausted and I wasn't very happy to having to wake up at 6:00 the next morning to go back to the camp.

But still, it has been a great opportunity to take my Project 52 photo. So good that I have decided to post two this week. A nice change from the foxes and other wildlife photos...

Hi everyone,

What a surprise, I'm in Guatemala chatting with Dalexia when she wrote me that I was this week MOW!

First I thought she was kidding because I have been the MOW before and I thought that you could only be the MOW one time. Seems I was wrong!

I'm very honored that the Opera team has chosen me for a second time and I thank you guys

The problem is that, since I'm in Guatemala, I don't have much time to spend on the OC because all our days are quite full and when we don't work, travel between places or eat, we have to do our laundry or clean the house or anything there is to do. I was also nominated by the rest of the group as the computer and digital camera specialist(seems that I'm the less worse of the group ) so every time someone has a problem with his camera card or their email's transmissions they come to see me.

But I have a wonderful time here, the country is beautiful, the people friendly, the kids are adorable and there are millions things to photograph. I haven't done much work so far because we are still in the preparation phase but after my one week Spanish course in Antigua beginning tomorrow, the real work will begin and I'm really looking forward for it.

Until then, I will give you a little teaser. Here's a few photo I took in that last days:

Bueno tardes y hasta luego!

This weekend, I had to go to the small town of Thetford Mines for a pre-trip orientation weekend for my upcoming 5 weeks humanitarian work-trip to Guatemala. I gave a lift to two other participants(two women around 60) and on our way there, we were talking about this upcoming orientation and we all wonder what it would be about because non of us had any clue. But now that I've done it, I realize that it should have been obvious...

One of the big part of this formation was about the Guatemala reality. Their history, the Spanish conquest of the Mayas, the 1960-1996 civil war, etc. We also learned about the 21st century Mayas who still today form the majority of the population with the Ladinos(Mixed aborigine). What I retained the most about this civilization, was the fact that the are a proud population loving their country who prefer to live as refugees in their own land or beg in the street than leaving their birthplace.

The other big part of this weekend, maybe the biggest, was about social relation and respect. Social relation and respect among our group and social relation and respect with other cultures. During opening minds workshops and games we have created bonds among the group and began to understand what will wait us in this trip. But it all began when we were asked to put our luggage in the dormitory. 32 persons, men and women sleeping in the same room, beds 1 meter apart, no privacy, only basic facilities. The morning after the first night everyone said that they didn't sleep but let me tell you that with all the loud snoring that have kept me awake all night some of us must have slept! Lesson #1: bring my earplugs to Guatemala

After, they made us participate to a fake spiritual celebration provoking many reactions among the group. They putted us in many other uncontrollable situations where our values, our judgements, our team work was challenged. For example, they separated us in small groups with playing cards. We had 5 minutes to individually read this new game playing instructions and rules. They took back the instructions and ask us to play in complete silence. Of course, there were some differences among the group members' comprehension of the game but that wasn't so bad but when they said that the nominated winner and loser of each table had to move to another table, the real trouble began! The migrating players didn't had the same already agreed rules of their host table and the impossibility to communicate with words created all kind of reactions. After the game we have learned that no group has received the same game instructions and rules at the beginning so while everyone thought they were right, no one had the truth. A good analogy for someone who has to live and work in a different country who has a different culture...

The rest of the weekend was used to talk about the practical aspects of the trip: The humanitarian projects, A typical day of work, The security precautions we need to take while working in the most criminal part of the capitol, etc.

At the end of the last day, it was amazing to already see the complicity of the group. Not everyone of us will travel at the same time of the year, only 6 of the people who were there will travel on the same dates as me. There are several pre-trip weekends organized so I haven't met all my future workmates. But among the people I have met, I discovered many interesting individuals even if I'm 15-20 years younger than the age average of the group. The most touching moment of this weekend happened during the last activity where we were asked to explain in front of the group, using a pool drawing on a board, how much deep we were willing to plunge in this venture. Since most of the member's reserve toward the group was now disappeared, there were many emotional, hand and voice shaking testimonies heard from many different persons who were about to fulfill a long awaited dream, a big personal challenge or new life resolution. Me, I said that I was choosing the highest dive board to jump in the deepest part of the pool because I plan to plunge in this experience as deep as I can.

To conclude this short weekend report I would like to talk about one of the trainer who was there: Hugo, a Guatemalan political refugee. This authentic aboriginal really gave me the taste of Guatemala with his amazing knowledge about the politics, culture and history of his country and with his interesting and funny way of explaining it. He became even more funnier Saturday night when a few of us sat around a camp fire to talk and have a couple of beers. Nothing beats a half drunk Guatemalan telling Newfie jokes!

Although, later that night the conversation took a more serious but interesting turn when we talked about men and women respect and relationships. First, the different cultural realities appeared between our two countries but soon after, many different perceptions about love and respect appeared among the Quebecois group itself...

No consensus was found when I went to bed that night, but on my way to the dormitory, I saw a shooting star and I made a wish.